{"id":15502,"date":"2017-12-12T22:27:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T22:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=15502"},"modified":"2023-05-30T23:58:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T22:58:55","slug":"super-rich-shown-to-have-grown-out-of-ancient-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2017\/12\/12\/super-rich-shown-to-have-grown-out-of-ancient-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-rich shown to have grown out of ancient farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe only large animals in the New World were dogs and turkeys and you cannot do a lot of ploughing with them,\u201d said another study scientist, Professor Michael Smith of Arizona State University.<\/p>\n

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\"PoweredThis article titled “Super-rich shown to have grown out of ancient farming” was written by Robin McKie, for The Observer on Sunday 10th December 2017 00.04 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists have traced the rise of the super-rich deep into our historical past to uncover the ancient source of social inequality. Their conclusion? Thousands of years ago, it was the use of large farm animals \u2013 horses and oxen that could pull ploughs \u2013 which created the equivalent of our multi-billionaire entrepreneurs today.<\/p>\n

The research, published in Nature<\/em><\/a>, is the first attempt to assess how significant wealth gaps arose among our ancestors. These began when farming first established the idea of land ownership \u2013 although only mild disparities resulted from the sowing and reaping of crops.<\/p>\n

It was only with the domestication of cattle and horses \u2013 sometimes thousands of years after land cultivation had begun \u2013 that serious divisions between societies\u2019 haves and have-nots began to emerge, eventually creating the ancient equivalent of today\u2019s island-owning, jet-setting billionaires.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became possible to extend fields far from a farmhouse by using plough animals, especially oxen, to break up the soil and so plant more crops,\u201d said project leader Professor Tim Kohler, of Washington State University in Pullman. \u201cSome farmers were able to raise productivity significantly and became very rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, animals such as the horse or ox were not available in the New World \u2013 where farming appeared independently of its arrival in the Middle East. As a result, this extension of farms did not occur and wealth disparities in societies were less pronounced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only large animals in the New World were dogs and turkeys and you cannot do a lot of ploughing with them,\u201d said another study scientist, Professor Michael Smith of Arizona State University, in Tempe. \u201cIn the end, that had a significant impact on societies. They had less inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

To measure relative wealth in a society, the team worked with archaeologists studying 62 different societies in Europe, Asia and North America. Some of these were up to 10,000 years old and included digs in ancient Babylonia, Catalhoyuk (now in Turkey) and Pompeii.<\/p>\n

Researchers analysed the sizes of houses at these sites and used these as indicators of the variations of wealth that existed there at any one time. \u201cHouse size gives a very good indication of wealth,\u201d said Smith. This point was backed by Kohler. \u201cWe consider house size to be a proxy for wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n